How to Disagree Like an Executive Without Getting Labeled "Difficult"

I built my career running social media strategy for a myriad of brands across news, beauty, wellness, celebrity, culture, fashion, finance and tech. Which you’d think would make it easier to win arguments about social media strategy. Unfortunately, it made it much harder. 😐

Here’s the thing nobody warns you about being the specialist in the room: everyone who isn’t a specialist still thinks they get a vote. And the more senior they are, the more they tend to anchor to whatever worked for them before, and mistake their own taste for strategy. When I worked for Arianna Huffington, she freaking loved posting quote cards. I mean truly loved them. Pretty sure she still does. Wanted them going out all day, every day. And look, at one point in internet history quote cards were high-performing content, but by then they did nothing for a full-funnel organic social media strategy we were actually trying to build and tie to wellness technology company. That wasn’t strategy. That was a preference. This happens constantly, and the higher up you go, the more confidently it happens. 👀